Why Do Babies Babble?

[Judi Lynn]

By Emma Bryce, Live Science Contributor | March 30, 2019 07:58am ET

If babies had a universal trait, it would have to be their babbling. During the earliest months of their lives, babies' interactions with us basically boil down to strings of ba's, ga's and da's, punctuated by the occasional gurgle or wet raspberry.

But does this seemingly random string of sounds serve any purpose — other than to entertain besotted parents and fuel adorable social media clips? A growing body of research over the past few decades has revealed that, nonsensical though it may sound, a baby's babble actually lays the groundwork for the development of language in later life.

Amid the varied soundscape of coos, gurgles and other random noises that babies emit, babbling is recognized as a distinctive category of sound that kicks in around the 6- to 8-month mark of a baby's life. It can be defined as "the production of repetitive, speech-like syllables," said Catherine Laing, a linguistics researcher at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, who focuses on early language development in infants. "Babble is the beginning of learning the sounds that can be used in speech," she summarized. [Why Do Babies Kick in the Womb?]

Babble is also noticeable enough that anyone paying attention to a baby's vocalizations will notice when it begins, according to Marilyn Vihman, a professor of language and linguistic science at the University of York in the United Kingdom, who has written several books on language development: "It's a really sharp change which adults can recognize. You don't have to be a linguist to recognize it."

More:
https://www.livescience.com/65110-why-do-babies-babble.html

[Harker]

1. But what about adults? n/t

[True Blue American]

2. Trump babble?

[Harker]

3. Some people Babylon forever. n/t

[True Blue American]

4. :)

[3catwoman3]

5. "A baby's babble actually lays the groundwork...

...for the development of language in later life."

You don't say?! This hardly seems like a profound observation.

I've been examining babies for almost 43 years. As I understand language acquisition, which is a delight to watch, babies come with the ability to make all the sounds of every language in the planet. They get reinforced for the sounds that their parents recognize as being part of the language(s) they speak.

[SCantiGOP]

10. I have a 14 month old granddaughter

She talks all the time; it’s just that you can’t understand a word of it (except mama and uh-oh). She understands most simple things we say to her, and seems very frustrated that she can’t verbalize back to us.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. And babies born totally deaf also babble

in their early months. Eventually they stop doing so, probably because they can't hear themselves and can't hear any other sounds.

[Rebl2]

7. Breaking news

Babies babbling leads to them learning language. Really, you think the majority of adults don’t already know this?

[Kind of Blue]

8. Going to send this to my SIL.

She's a 3rd grade teacher. Almost 28 years ago, I noticed that she babbled back to my niece rhyming the baby's babble words then baby would rhyme right back using new different words(?) followed by a new rhyme sequence expecting her mom to follow suite. I'm like "You two are scatting but why don't you use real words." SIL said, "No, this is good for her language development because she's learning how to speak."

The surprising thing was that soon niece spoke in complete sentences. Giving SIL, some time alone, my sisters and I hung out with niece at a park. We were talking about something and I remembered saying, "I was shocked" about something. Niece said out of nowhere, "I was shocked, too!" We cracked up so hard and baby niece right along with us. But we knew SIL was right about development.

[Judi Lynn]

9. That's excellent! Very interesting.Thanks for your comment, Kind of Blue. n/t